


A Dead Man's Thesis

by IsARandomPerson



Category: Dead by Daylight (Video Game)
Genre: Disturbing Themes, Killer's Perspective, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Slow To Update
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-30
Updated: 2020-09-09
Packaged: 2021-03-05 21:14:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,155
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25601905
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IsARandomPerson/pseuds/IsARandomPerson
Summary: Sometimes, one is driven to sell their soul for vengeance, and now that I did that and subsequently died, it's my turn to fulfill my side of the deal. For the foreseeable eternity at least.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 3





	1. A Weird Start After the End

To be honest with you I was bored, who knew that selling your soul to the unknown would leave you in a waiting room that didn’t exist. All I could see was nothingness, all I could Feel was nothingness. I took my phone out of what I think is my pocket and turned it on. The screen was cracked a bit, only in the top corner, and the battery was full. Now that I think about it it’s kinda weird, when everything started to go down it was only at fifty percent. And I know that the app with a red explosion icon was new, but I can explore that one later. I needed to check the news and see if… yup, I’m dead, that’s good to know. That doesn’t matter though, not anymore. Albeit it is weird that I do get service here, no doubt it’ll be rare from here on out. Now I just have to wait for-

**_It’s Time For Your First Trial._ **

Here it is

**_Don’t Fail Me, My Killer._ **

Time to uphold my side of an unfair deal. Actually, scratch that, a bad deal. But once again that doesn’t matter right now. I had a job to do and failure was not an option.

I felt a black fog overtake my being and set me on solid ground, and all I could feel was the initial pain of existing after such a violent death. Then it became worse as my body accepted the enhancements I was promised would give me an edge over my… Prey…

Realization washed over me as I took the situation in. I’m a Killer… A Murder… I planted destruction and killed them. Oh gods they're dead. And now it’s my job to continue doing that…

I decided to open my eyes, I was standing in a restroom. A men’s room to be exact, one I recognized too. I’ve been here too many times to count. I remember that I was told my memories of this place would manifest for the trials, but I wasn’t expecting it to seem so real… I could dwell on that later. I looked up ahead of me, and there he was.

Well, there I was, Jeremiah Zachery in the flesh, I looked at myself in the restroom mirror. I saw my almost tanned skin and my black-ish hair... Huh, the white streaks were more pronounced now, but not too much, as my trusty black baseball cap was still set backward on my head with the purple monster still stitched on the side. My sunglasses and red bandanna still covered my face and my eyes. I saw my black tee-shirt and jeans, and I could feed my steel toe boots weighing me down to the floor. And, of course, I was covered in blood.

“That’s probably not coming out,” I said to myself out loud, half to make sure I was still real, half to make sure my voice still worked, and half just to state the fact that I was a mess, “Hmm… probably from when I bashed his face in with…”

My bat was in my hand, the weight of the long silver metal object helped me ground myself more. I studied the weapon and the dried blood on it, I gazed at it for a few seconds before I let it go, letting the wisps of light store it away. I couldn't be seen with it right now, what I needed to do was get to work.

I started to move and take in my surroundings, and I knew this place too well. It was a megachurch, now in a state of disarray. Trash and papers littered the floor from people running for their lives, a few bodies were lying about, having either bleed out from their wounds or were trampled in the chaos. But there was one thing wrong with the place as I walked through the giant building, there were holes in the walls that I didn’t make, and there were new walls in places that never had them before, weird.

What was weirder were three things that were definitely added after I died. First was a wooden pallet leaning against the door frame to the stairs to the upper floors. The way it was precariously placed there seemed dangerous, even if I had been promised more durability it was probably best to avoid these in general. 

The next thing I saw seemed just as just out of place as the pallet. It was a generator placed in the middle of the hall to the welcome desk. Now that I thought about it, this place had no power going to it, and it was raining pretty hard outside, so it at least made some kind of sense. 

The last thing I saw however made the least sense to be here. In the place of one of the wall lights was a nasty looking meat-hook, I knew exactly what it was for but it still seemed wrong.

While trying not to regret anything just yet I took a hard right into the auditorium of the megachurch and marveled at the destruction. Pews and chairs were piled up into more of those maze-like structures and… That's weird… What I saw was basically an odd art piece, except it was made out of rope, twigs, and what seemed to be real human bones, what was worse was the unnatural yellow glow coming from inside the skull.

I think... I think that I know what that glow means, I can feel its influence pulling at the very fabric of this sick game, and it was vulnerable. I needed to protect it, I don’t know why but I do. That is when I reached for something, and it materialized in my hand. It was a package that looked like a white clay block with some wires and a small computer chip stabbed into it. I took out some duct tape and stuck it to the back of an upturned pew next to the totem, then I took out my phone and opened that new app. It didn’t take too long for the chip to pair and leave a big red button with a “1” glowing on the screen. When I was done with that I backed up and looked at the platform at the front of the auditorium. There was a generator sitting in the very middle of the stage and to the right… Thunder clapped overhead as I saw… Him. 

His body was still there, propped up against the backdrop while covered in his own blood. If I were to have any regrets about the whole debacle, him ending up there in that condition was going to be the only thing I know I’ll never regret… You know what, let’s do something nostalgic.

I walked over to the very center of the platform and materialized another one of my packages, taped it to the floor, and paired it so that another button showed up with a “2”.

“Alright,” I started to speak aloud, “Now what should I do next?” Well to be honest I should probably find one of those… Survivors? Yeah, that's what they were called-

A light that didn’t exist blew up in my mind and eyes, up towards my right on the third floor of the megachurch. “That’s probably one of the generators, and that's where they're gonna be.” I kept talking out loud, “Now I just have to get them here.”

A smirk appeared on my face as I walked over to one of the piles of chairs, and materialized my trusty bat. “Here goes nothin’.” I slugged as hard as I could into the pile as I could, sending at least three or four of the folding chairs across the room. And I was headed to an exit before they hit the floor, I knew that I could not be in the auditorium when the survivors came and investigated the noise. Well… as long as they weren't too scared to do so.

I made my way up to the second floor, placing another package in the stairwell for the 'ell of it. Once I exited the stairs I saw… His… Office. Fuck, I still couldn’t get that bastard out of my mind. You know what one more package. 

I entered his office, noting that the door had fallen off the hinges. Then I simply dropped a package on top of his desk and paired it up so that a “4” popped up. I smiled, it still felt good to do these kinds of things to him, even though we’re both dead by now. I looked up from what I was doing and saw something weird. It was like one of those pallets that were precariously placed everywhere, but instead, it was just the wood paneling filling in the door to the adjoining office.

“Hmm… I wonder.” The thought escaped my mouth as I walked up to the blocked door. “That thing said that I was going to be stronger… So let's try this.”

I started to twist into the back-kick, letting out a quiet “ha!”, and the entire thing crumbled under what felt like a light push. “Huh… That was easier than it was supposed to be.” As I was saying that, another light that didn’t exist lit up. In the auditorium.

“Well fuck my life,” I started to walk to the second-floor balcony, making sure that my bandanna was pulled down around my neck and that my bat and phone were dismissed.

The lights for the entirety of the auditorium were on, including the giant screen that showed an image of the center stage. And I could see the survivors in the image of the glorified TV.

There were four of them, three men and one woman. The woman was relatively young-looking, fair-skinned and blond, probably in her late teens or early twenties. She was wearing a blue blouse that looked like it belonged in the eighties, or they had their outfit picked out by a grandma for Sunday. She was looking at the monitor, watching one of the guys wave his arms about. He looked like he was in his late thirties to early forties, and wearing a blue button-up and… what was with his hand? It looks like a weird glove covered with robot parts, and it was easy to see since it was enlarged on the screen.

The two other men were examining the package that I left on the stage, one looked like a war vet in his seventies, his cigarette and the way he fearlessly held himself around what he probably knew was dangerous gave that away. The second man wasn’t so brave looking standing a foot or so away from the package. He seemed like he was a bit younger than the other man but not by much, he also looked like he was trying to pull off the barbecue-dad look very badly.

Ya’ know… now that I see him… something’s off. There’s some kinda feel… and aura… it felt like bastard was important… it made me want to get to him the most… it made his smug presence almost… **_Obsessive_** …

No! Not right now. I could feel my heart beast almost race, yearning for a blood lust for those survivor’s deaths. No, their torture more like it. I made sure to take a second to breathe before approaching the railing.

“Hey!” I let out a good yell, making all of the survivors jump out of their skin, and their eyes all whipped towards my direction. I continued to speak, “Finally some people!”

The reaction from the four was a mix of surprise, fear, defensiveness, relief, and dread. I tried my best to fake a reaction between being surprised and confused in response, then I did a quick look to my right and left and found a spot in the railing that was missing. “One sec,” I said as I walked over to the missing section and… dropped.

Now, I’ve never done this kind of thing before, but I have seen my fair share of videos online about parkour and falling out of plains. So I at least knew to roll into the landing, and, to be honest, I didn’t do too badly, but

“Ooww, my shoulder.” I stood up rubbing my right shoulder, “Heh, anyways, it’s good to see other people, I thought I was stuck here with the dead dude until the storm passed.”

There was a short lull as the survivors simply… Looked. They looked at me, at each other, and they kept shooting glances at their surroundings. At least they did until they all gave a silent nod. Then the one that was waving his arms about walked forwards and did a slight hop off the platform. “Well, hello there, I’m Ash.” He said in an almost showy manner as he extended his… honestly kinda creepy hand.

I retreated on instinct, my hands going into my pockets and one of them was clutching my phone. I also felt myself shrink out of habit. “Um.. sorry… I don’t do… handshakes in general…” I said as a look of disappointment crossed the man’s face. Ash, was it? Wait… “Oh! It’s not because your hand is weird! Well, it’s not weird! I think…”

Good going Jeremiah.

“Well… It’s ok I’m used to it by now. Still miss the chainsaw but that would be more of a killer’s thing.” Ash continued anyways. “By the way that’s there is Ace, the green one is Bill, and the lady over there is Laurie.” The robotic hand formed to a point and passed over the others in succession. “And we are so sorry for the hell you're about to endure.”

“What?” I was surprised by the bluntness of the last statement. I knew this place was an equivalent of H-E-Double hockey sticks, but still. “I know this place just went through.. Stuff…” I gestured to… his body laying on the stage. “And that storm is probably a hurricane… Wait. Why would you folks shelter from the storm here anyways? I get that you might actually care about this place, but the… shite show that happened…” I let myself trail off and almost cringe at thinking about it.

The survivors went through a few waves of emotions, Some kind of fear, understanding, and some kind of sympathy for something I’m not supposed to understand yet.

“Listen here, kid.” It was... Bill who spoke up, “You’re stuck in something much bigger and much worse.” He turned to the others. “Keep your wits about ya’, we’re in a broken trial now with him being here.” he turned back to me, “Come on kid, let’s walk… Oh! And a new survivor means a new killer, and we don’t know what those bombs can do yet so be careful around them!”

More thunder cracked overhead as Bill walked towards the back of the auditorium to the main lobby, and I made sure to hesitantly follow. And just as I was leaving I heard one of the other survivors call out a lit totem… Well fuck, looks like everything ‘bout to start.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading the beginning to an idea that's been bouncing around my head for a while. 
> 
> I have no idea when I'll write/post the next chapter but hopefully it'll be soon.
> 
> Also, don't be scared to comment suggestions or possible grammar/spelling fixes :)


	2. Starting Things Off Wrong

Ya’ know, it’s kinda funny. I’ve never liked interacting with people. I don’t think I’ve ever had anybody that would call me their “best friend” or whatever, and every time I tried to connect with someone new… It... never ended well. And I am Not going to talk about anything romantic, once was enough to show me that that wasn’t something I was going to pursue. But that’s off the point.

The old man I was following through the megachurch reminded me of the nosy people who used to attend this place on the regular. Constantly needing to know why Brenda’s old husband remarried after a month, or if Dick was still showing up home late. And on top of that all they would pour life savings into a place that only dumped it into the next private plane. To be honest, I would have hesitated more if there was some actual religion involved…

“You hear that boy?” Bill asked me without turning around. “The heartbeat?”

To be honest no, I couldn't hear it, I could Feel it almost pounding in my chest, yearning for the hunt’s blood to be shed. But still… “Um… Yeah? W-what is it?”

The old man stopped next to one of the generators, we were inside one of the adjoining chapels. “That is a Nasty bastard who wants to do nothing more than to bash your head in, stab your heart out, and leave you to hang on one of those there hooks.” he pointed to a hook in the corner of the room, “Do whatever you need to do to get away from it, You hear.”

Thunder crashed overhead again, and a sinking feeling pulled at my being as the very fabric of the trial was being tugged at. I watched as Bill knelt next to the generator with his back turned to me. You know what, fuck it, let’s do this thing.

I took out my phone and hovered my finger over the “1”, and I made sure to pull my bandanna back up over my nose and mouth as a weird smile broke onto my concealed face. I never liked people, but what I was doing right now made me feel really fucking powerful. Then I hit the button.

Two screams of pain emanated across the plane of existence, and soon it was quickly drowned out by a loud “Boom”. Bill popped up and turned around, and he was met with a long piece of silver metal, square to the face. He let out a low growl as "realization" hit him. “How? There’s no stain?” He said as he began to run, making me whiff a second hit on the army man.

Even for his age and obvious limp, the old man could run, but he didn’t seem that fast. All I had to do was a steady power walk and the distance between me and him began to close. He tried to make distance by dropping one of the pallets in between the doorway to the chapel.

I went to just push the stupid hunk of wood and rust aside but… It was stuck… Weird, but if it was anything like that filled-in door-frame in the office earlier all it should take is one hearty stomp.

I lifted my leg as high as I could and brought my foot down on top of the pallet, letting the rotten wood crumble under the weight. Now to get back to finishing the old man.

He hadn’t gotten far, and even if he had, he couldn’t hide. It was an odd sight to be sure, but it made a small amount of sense. His emotions, his fear, his panic, and his determination, were literally etched into the walls and the floor behind him. And all I had to do was walk right at him and…

He took a sharp right up the staircase to the next floor… “Well oops.” I said to myself as I took out my phone and hit the “3” and watched as a bright orange-yellow glow lit up the area. 

I let out a small “Heh…” as I walked over to see the carnage. The old man was unconscious, lying at an odd angle at the bottom of the stairs. Looks like that package was in the right spot, and it will probably work again…

Once I had a new “1” on my phone I turned around to the sleeping army man. “Time to finish you off…” I brandished my bat as I walked down to his form. “All this will take it one solid hit-”

_**No…**_

“What?”

_**He Must Be Awake To Fear.**_

“Um… How do I wake him up without him running, Eh?”

_**Lift Him To His Sacrifice.**_

I took a moment to look up and take a gander at one of those hooks… How was I supposed to get him up there? I looked back down at the old man and sighed, I needed to get back to the other survivors soon, else I would lose the charade I was trying to trick them with. 

I bent down and grabbed him by the shirt and started to try and lift and… “What in the world?” I was surprised by how light he was, it didn’t take much energy to get him slung over my shoulder and start hauling him up to the landing. 

From what I saw he did seem to thin… at least not to the point of being anemic. But… damn, he should have been heavier. Know what, never mind, once I reached the hook I quickly heaved his body onto the piece of rusty metal.

For an old guy that smelled like cigarettes, he could scream. But I didn’t hang around. I did a few quick hops to amp myself up, as army man began to struggle, then I ran up to the oddly intact railing and slid down. From there I kept myself at a light sprint, I also dismissed my bat and pulled down my bandanna from my face.

I burst into the auditorium where the survivors still were, bending over to catch my breath. “W-what… Was… That.”

Laurie walked up to me… Perfectly fine… I could have sworn that she was one of the ones who screamed earlier… In fact, none of the three who were present seemed to be hurt at all beyond a few bruises and a limp from the lady who began to speak. “Are you okay? Ash brought a med-kit if you're hurt.” 

Oh… they can heal…

“I don’t know it was all so fast, are you okay I heard an explosion. Then he was after us.” I took a quick breath, “then he got the old guy… is… is he dead?”

“Probably not,” Laurie said while she put a hand on my shoulder. “Don’t worry, you’ll come to recognize when someone is put on one of those hooks.” She turned around to face the other two. “We need a plan of action. We already have two of the gens down, Bill is on a hook, and we now know what the bombs can do.”

“We need to take care of the totem now that we’re healed up,” Ash spoke up, “I'll try and get it now.” I watched as he walked over and began to dismantle reality.

“I’ll go ahead and try to get Bill off the hook.” It was Ace this time. “After all, he’s the only one that knows what the killer looks like,” A smile grew on his face, “That, and us golden boys need to stick together.” heh.

“Wait…” I said, “What about… Woosh.” I brought my hands together then brought them out and expanded them, fortunately, everyone got my message.

“Actually,” Laurie looked over at the package still on the stage. “I’m gonna try and see if they can’t be dismantled.” Her face was covered with a nervous smile. “Stay back so if it goes off you can heal me back up… again.”

I watched as she climbed onto the platform and leaned over the package, poking at it. And Ash was almost done taking that totem apart, I didn’t think I could hold back any longer anyways. 

Before Ace could leave the large room I pulled my bandanna back up over my face and took my phone out, hovering my finger over the “2”.

The final bit of the pull over reality finally dissipated and my vision flooded with red for a few seconds. And I hit the button, swallowing Laurie in an orange glow.

Both Ash and Ace started to frantically look around, first seeing Laurie being flung back by the force. Then I heard them both gasp as they saw me, bat in hand, already walking towards Ash.

Gods, my heart felt like it wanted to burst out of my chest as I slugged "realization" into the Mr. cyborg's stomach.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Hex: Deception"
> 
> "They were given the clues, but they never saw you or the destruction coming. Now a Hex keeps your true colors from being shown.
> 
> While the Hex Totem still stands, your Red Stain will not be shown to any of the survivors."
> 
> _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
> 
> thanks for reading, I have no idea where I'm going with this yet but hopefully I'll figure that out soon ;)


	3. Hooking Up With People

Ya’ know? This is the second time that a survivor has realized just what I am, third if you count… him. And all it took was my bat and a whole lot of malice. Now that I think about it, those words were ringing through my head as I looked at the long piece of silver metal; realization, fear, malice… Power.

I tried to ground myself back to this version of reality. I gripped the handle of “realization”, taking in the feel of the grip-tape, I watched as I cleaned the blood off, I took in the natural warmth from the blood and the cold that surrounded me.

Once I was done I snapped my attention back to the man on the floor. Ash was a mess. He was bleeding profusely from his now broken nose. And it probably didn’t help that he was writhing on the floor and coughing up blood from what were the ribs I broke before that. 

“You okay their partner?” I joked as I went to pick him up. Fuck, this was going to be hard. The old guy earlier might have been easier due to his age or diet or Something, but blue-shirt here was easily the biggest person here… Ya’ know what?

_**No…** _

Fine…

_**Give them Hope. Give them Fear.** _

I let out a sigh as I looked at the hook across the room to the left of the stage then to Ash. Making sure to bend down and lift with my legs, I grabbed the man by his shirt collar and belt.

What.. The… Actual… Fuck… Just like the old guy. It felt like no weight at all. I knew that I was going to be a lot stronger… but I wasn’t expecting this. To be honest it almost felt like cheating… Almost. At least it was satisfying to hear the moans of pain and subsequent coughing up of blood from the struggling survivor.

I looked over to where Ace was, he was still standing there, watching me. We made eye contact as I slung Mr cyborg over my shoulder. Ace took a few more moments to weigh his options, looking between Ash, me, and “realization”. I did my best to take an intimidating step towards him, only for him to bolt in the opposite direction, probably towards Bill.

It took me a few seconds to get the big guy on my shoulder over to the hook, especially since he was trying to struggle out of my grasp. But eventually, I got over to one on the left side of the auditorium and listened to the screams Ash made as he was placed on the hook, his blood dripping onto the ground. 

I looked over to the stage, Laurie was still there, struggling to get up after the blast. It only took a few seconds before I was standing over her, a swing to the top of her head cut short an ear-piercing scream.

And once again, she was too light, but I didn’t worry about this one too much, as she was the smallest one out of the group. Still, she was not to be spared.

I looked around for another hook, eventually finding one towards the back of the auditorium. And once I finally set the comparatively petite blond onto the hook, I almost had to cover my ears at the scream that she let out. My only saving grace at that moment was that she eventually ran out of air.

“Okay, Okay… Only one more left to go.” I spoke aloud, only to pause as I felt a pull at reality… Bill was pulled off the hook… wait… that was possible? Fuck… wait a sec, I did have a package there, right?

My phone was in my hand before I even registered what I was doing, my thumb hovering over the “1”. boom.

I could hear both of the old men scream, good, I needed to get over there now.

Ya’ know what? I was kinda grateful for the boost to my speed that the dark god gave me, even if I didn’t care for its implications. But by the time I could even start to think them over, I was almost on top of the geezers that could.

They were both injured, Ace was on his feet, and he was helping Bill get to his. They seemed to notice me before I was in the stairwell, as they started to hobble away from me.

“Y’all aren't getting away ya’ know,” I said as menacing as I could, putting the emphasis on what little drawl I had.

“Well fuck you too!”

I let out a small chuckle at how raw Bill’s response felt. I almost felt sorry for him, so I went after Ace first.

My attention turned to Ace as he split up from Bill and ran towards… His office, nice. My phone was already in my hand as I hit the last button. He hit the floor hard, and by the way his legs were splayed, he wasn’t getting up. 

As for me, I was too close to the blast, and it hurt. I was basically forced to stand there for a second collecting my thoughts. It didn’t hurt in an “I’m gonna die” kinda way, but there was a sense of jamais vu in the back of my mind.

Fortunately, the pain died down enough for me to grab the once again too light survivor, and haul his butt over to a hook at the end of the second story hall.

“Now I just need Bill… again,” I said as Ace’s scream echoed through the halls.

Then there was a pull at reality, fuck, now Laurie was free, and Ash probably wasn't too far behind. I Need to get moving… Again…

There was a sickening sound of meat against metal behind me. I whipped around and saw Ace landing on the ground, he muttered “Deliverance baby!” then looked up and locked eyes with me.

“Oh… Um… You're still here eh?” Ace backed up away from me, “How about calling this a done deal and going after someone else for a change?”

A bit of “realization” to the jaw managed to answer that for him. “Look,” I said as I lifted him onto my shoulder again, “do me a favor and just… Die. Ow!”

My vision went red and I dropped the prey. It ran away as I just stood there, _**Unmoving**_. I could barely keep my thoughts straight as I felt my own blood trickle down my back. I dropped my bat as I reached over and felt over the quickly closing wound. I grabbed… something and took a look at it…

All I could feel was the _**need**_ for his death… All I knew was that he was _**going**_ to die… All because of a little piece of _**glass**_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Decisive Strike
> 
> WTF... Ow...
> 
> _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
> 
> Here's a bit of lore that probably won't be mentioned, but The Bomber/Jeremiah Zachery, and the Gold Lilly Megachurch are both from somewhere in south-east Texas.  
> That, and the Entity's version of the Megachurch is constantly surrounded by a category 4 hurricane for atmospheric purposes.
> 
> Also, thanks for reading this thing... again lol :)


End file.
